DEFYING THE FURIES

Kyriakos Mitsotakis thinks he can swing Greece back to the center. Europe’s moderates hope he’s right

BY JOSH LOWE

WAITING IN THE WINGS: Kyriakos Mitsotakis, leader of the conservative New Democracy party, looks on before a meeting at the Presidential Palace in Athens. He says he would win a vote if elections were moved up to 2017.

KYRIAKOS MITSOTAKIS thinks he’s seen the political future—and it’s in his poll numbers. At a time when centrists across Europe are in retreat, Greece’s opposition leader believes his country has had its populist moment and is ready to vote for a straight-talking pragmatist. “The pendulum tends to swing [back] in the other direction,” he tells Newsweek in his Athens office. “I think that’s where we are right now.”